BIOGRAPHY
Mark Caserta, from Philadelphia, graduated from the University of the Arts School of Dance, BFA 2010. He danced professionally with international touring companies Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Les Ballets Jazz De Montreal and Camille A. Brown & Dancers. Mark has been awarded the Philadelphia Rocky Award for Outstanding Dance Performance, The Patrick Swayze Scholarship from Complexions Ballet and the Pennsylvania Ballet Choreography Award. Mark was a 2018 Emerging Choreographer at Springboard Danse Montreal and premiered his first full evening length work ‘BIG KID’ at Gibney NY POP Performance Series in February 2019. Mark has been commissioned to set new works on Pennsylvania Ballet II, Grace Dance Theater, Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, Kit Modus, Whim W’him Contemporary Dance Seattle and Gibney Company. Mark was named the 2019/2020 EMERGE Award Recipient with Gibney Company & Springboard Danse Montreal. Mark has presented work at Wanderlust Dance Festival, The Austin Dance Festival, Dance Gallery Festival, The Banff Center for Performing Arts Choreographic Gesture, The Boston Dance Festival, Steps On Broadway Choreography Lab and the Brooklyn Dance Festival. He has also created work on the University of the Arts School of Dance and Pace University. Mark was co-director of The Thriving Artist Project, a program offering a free Pre-Professional experience to young dance artists collaborating with artists from Batsheva, NDT, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater & Lines Ballet. He has been on faculty at Dance Industry Performing Arts Center, The Joffrey School, Harlem School of the Arts, Gibney Dance, Broadway Dance Center and the Playground NY, teaching Ballet, Contemporary Ballet and Movement Research. Mark is also a trainer and ambassador for MindLeaps, an organization creating educational paths for the most vulnerable children in the world through a creative arts program that is built on data-driven metrics, in Rwanda, Uganda and several other countries. Mark curated 'CREATE & CONNECT’, an all virtual dance platform with movement sessions and conversations featuring artists such as Sidra Bell, Mikey Morado, Alexander Anderson, Jason Parsons, Dorchel Haqq, Samantha Figgins, Thom White, Amara Barner, Eden Solomon and more. He is currently on faculty at University of the Arts, a freelance choreographer/dancer/educator, and creating work for his own project BIGkid Dance.
CLASS DESCRIPTION
We start with an injury safe/sensitive warmup with easy suggestive movement focusing on the internal body while progressing into more physical and intricate work. Moving through an open structure, I try to find a real connection to the floor and space, play with contrasting approaches and allow the dancers to find their own groove. I utilize classical, contemporary ballet, modern techniques and social dance, fuzed with isolation, imagery and connectivity to create loose phrase work as a structure for each dancer to explore their own language within.